Mohamed Abbou
and documents seized at Tunis airport
He
has been placed under police surveillance and closely followed
everywhere he goes.
Source : OLPEC
Plainclothes officers at Tunis's Carthage
international airport threatened and harassed lawyer Mohamed Abbou
shortly after he alighted from a plane from Morocco on 27 February 2010.
The human rights defender and former political prisoner was subjected to
a strip search by the officers in a customs area room after they
presented him with an authorisation from airport security services. A
copy of the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) annual report was
confiscated from him during the search.
After completing customs procedures, Abbou was then subjected to the
insults and crude remarks of the officers as they shoved him towards the
exit. A large crowd of onlookers witnessed the scene.
Abbou told OLPEC that one of the officers threatened to send him back to
prison.
Airport authorities also confiscated several copies of the CPJ report and
two books, as well as a copy of the Moroccan newspaper "Al
Ayam" from journalist Lotfi Hidouri, who was returning from Morocco
with Abbou.
Since his return, Abbou has been placed under police surveillance and closely
followed everywhere he goes. Friends and colleagues have also been
prevented from entering his home.
OLPEC condemns the harassment of Abbou and all other rights defenders and
deplores the abusive and arbitrary confiscation of documents by airport authorities
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